Rohan – Back to the Future
November 1, 2009 by Sarah Howcroft
Over the last nine months, we have published on Rohantime three posts from Chris Townsend. Recording some very early memories of Rohan and the Rohan garments used on some of those very early trips. These memories stretched back over 32 years and included his first in-counter with the late Paul Howcroft co founder of Rohan. The three posts recorded not only his experience of using early Rohan garments on the trips but amazing memories of the trips themselves, in particular the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide. The three posts have been so popular on Rohantime, we thought it would be a great idea to collect them all together and ask Chris to round them off with a look back at those very early memories and to put it all into context… now read on.
Rohan: Looking Back
Thinking back to those long walks of the 1970s and 80s reminded me of just how much things have changed. Back then the Rohan clothing I used was cutting edge. So cutting edge in fact that many outdoors people didn’t believe it would work. The fabrics were too thin and too light, they said. The designs didn’t look right for outdoor clothing (i.e. they had some shape!). Stretch materials were too close-fitting and not warm enough. Polycotton was so scorned by the outdoors industry that stores wouldn’t stock it. I’d walked from Mexico to Canada across deserts and mountains wearing it but the retail buyers knew it wouldn’t work. Thin insulation was derided too. I remember being told how it would never keep me warm. But I was never cold walking down the Rockies for 3,000 miles with it as my only warm clothing. Today everything is different. Go into any outdoor shop now and you’ll find clothing made of even thinner and lighter fabrics than polycotton, racks of garments labelled “soft shell” made of stretch fabrics remarkably like the Helanca Rohan was using in 1977 and plenty of thin insulated garments bearing the labels of the leading mountaineering clothing companies. Thirty years ago Rohan’s clothing was revolutionary. Now the ideas, fabrics and designs are the norm. Look closely and you can see the influence of Rohan everywhere. Often now it is third or fourth hand, filtered through other designs, other companies. I wonder how many of today’s designers know the real origin of the ideas and fabrics they use. The revolution in clothing Rohan began all those years ago has made venturing into the outdoors more comfortable and enjoyable. For those of us who were there at the beginning it has been like that for a long time.
The Chris Townsend chronicles 1975-1985 – Rohantime
Chris Townsend in early Rohan Clothing 1979 – 1985
Rohan on the CDT
September 17, 2009 by Sarah Howcroft
“It gives me great pleasure to introduce the third guest post for Rohantime from Chris Townsend.
I really appreciated and enjoyed the first and second post from Chris. From your feedback many Rohantime readers enjoyed them as well. A big thank you Chris.”
Sarah Howcroft.
Rohan on the Continental Divide Trail
Three years after completing the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) I set out on a longer and more adventurous undertaking, the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), which runs for 3,100 miles down the Rocky Mountains from the Canadian border to Mexico. Back in 1985 there really wasn’t much of an actual trail and few people had hiked the route, making it a serious and exciting venture. The number of Continental Divide Trail signs I saw on the 51/2 month 3,100 mile walk could be counted on one hand. The route was a mix of trails, old dirt roads and long cross country sections. Sometimes I was route finding in dense forests on steep mountainsides, at others treading narrow rock ridges high above the forest. For the last 500 miles in New Mexico, where the Rocky Mountains dwindle away I was mostly in open desert country with little shelter and across which swept strong dusty winds. Overall the weather on the CDT is wetter, cooler and stormier than on the PCT. For several weeks in the Colorado Rockies and then again for the last week in the Mogollon Mountains of New Mexico I had heavy snowfalls to contend with while throughout the walk thunderstorms were a hazard. I learnt how quickly I could run with a heavy pack when caught in the open with lightning flashing all around! Even more than on the PCT my clothing needed to be capable of dealing with a huge range of conditions including freezing cold, hot sun, high winds and heavy rain. Added to the weather was the fact that the first 1,000 miles or so was in grizzly bear country, which meant not cooking or storing food in my tent, regardless of the weather. I carried a small tarp to erect as a cooking shelter in rain but was dependant on my clothes to keep me warm. I couldn’t rely on my tent or sleeping bag for warmth. You really don’t want your sleeping bag to smell of food in grizzly country!
In the years between my PCT and CDT walks Rohan had developed new designs and introduced new materials, most noticeably a light, thin synthetic fill for insulated garments. Because Rohan didn’t make warm clothing in 1982 I’d carried a pile jacket and a down vest on the PCT. On the CDT I took Rohan’s new synthetic insulated Sohao Jacket and Wild Vest, a combination that was lighter and more compact than the PCT clothing and just as warm. As the garments were shelled with polycotton they were also windproof, unlike the pile jacket, and quick drying and reasonably warm when wet, unlike the down vest. These properties were important in the Rockies, especially when cooking and eating outside. Worn together the two synthetic tops kept me warm in below freezing weather whilst I was sitting outside waiting for the dinner to cook with no need to protect them from wind or rain. Today similar garments are found in every outdoor shop. It’s only in the last decade they’ve become popular though, twenty years after Rohan first made them.
As on the PCT I wore a wicking Cool T throughout the walk but with a new wicking shirt called the Jekyll over it in cooler weather and the polycotton Moving On windshirt when it was breezy. Only in very cold weather did I walk in the Sohao. On my legs I wore Shorts or Bags, depending on the temperature and the mosquitoes, while in rain I wore a new Rohan Gore-Tex top called the Master Jacket. This set of clothing was light and compact and gave me a variety of combinations for different weather conditions. I was never too cold, too hot or wet so it all worked well. It all proved durable and lasted the whole rough and rugged walk.
The CDT was a wilderness adventure, a much wilder and more arduous walk than the CDT. But the reward was months spent in spectacular mountain country from the snowy peaks of Glacier National Park to the spouting geysers and bubbling mud pots of Yellowstone and the red desert cliffs of New Mexico. The walk was a magnificent time of my life and one I will never forget. I came back to magazine editing and writing and the direction of my life was set. Rohan was an essential part of that, both with the clothing and the encouragement and support of Paul and Sarah Howcroft. I will never forget them either.
Rohan clothing used on the CDT with weights in ounces.
Cool T 4
Jekyll shirt 9
Shorts 7
Bags 12
Moving On II 10
Sohao jacket 24
Wild Vest 14
Master Jacket (Gore-Tex) 21
Photos : Chris Townsend in early Rohan Clothing 1979 – 1985
Pacific Crest Trail
June 17, 2009 by Sarah Howcroft
This is the second post from Chris Townsend. Thanks Chris. Looking forward to number three.
Rohan and Chris on the Pacific Crest Trail.
On my spring walk from Land’s End to John O’Groats in 1978 I discovered how good Rohan’s stretch Super Strider breeches and polycotton Pampas jacket were and how much I enjoyed long distance walking. Wanting to experience bigger, remoter and wilder places I decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs for 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada through the deserts and mountain ranges of southern California and then the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains. With an altitude range from 140 feet to 14,505 feet and terrain from the hot Mohave Desert to the wet arctic-alpine Cascades clothing would need to be versatile. Sometimes I’d be walking in shorts and t-shirt, sometimes in full waterproofs. As I’d be carrying most of my clothing some of the time and my load would be heavy as I’d often be carrying food for a week or more (I carried 23 days supplies at one point plus snowshoes, ice and crampons) clothing would need to be lightweight too. Reluctantly I decided that the Super Striders and Pampas were too heavy, as they would probably spend much of the time in my pack. However just before I set out on the trail in 1982 Rohan introduced a range of single thickness lightweight polycotton clothing. It looked ideal and I chose Shorts, Knickers (a name that was fine in the US as that’s what Americans called breeches), Rohan Bags and a minimalist version of the Pampas called the Action Jacket. Rohan had also started using a wicking fabric called Dunova and I took a mesh t-shirt called the Cool T and a long sleeved shirt called the Long T made from this. Other walkers looked at my apparently flimsy clothing and sneered – “it’ll never last”, “you’ll freeze to death”, “you need good old tweed and cotton for a walk like that”. They were wrong. The clothing was superb and lasted the whole trip, the only serious damage being to the Cool T, which came apart at one shoulder where the pack rubbed on the mesh. (A photo of me wearing this torn t-shirt appeared in my first book The Great Backpacking Adventure, leading one reviewer to hope the book made enough money for me to replace it!). The polycotton clothing kept off wind, sun and mosquitoes, breathed well and dried fast. There was only one problem with it and that was my fault. I had chosen navy blue garments on the basis that the dark colour wouldn’t show the dirt. This was a disaster for photographs, the clothing appearing as black smudges. Thankfully the Dunova shirts were pale coloured. The Action Jacket over the two shirts was warm enough while I was walking but not adequate for camp wear so I also carried a pile jacket as Rohan had not yet got round to making any insulated garments. That would have to wait for my next long walk. Rohan didn’t make any waterproof garments either but Paul and Sarah were experimenting with a soft lightweight Gore-Tex fabric and kindly offered to make me up a jacket and salopettes in this fabric, on the understanding that they couldn’t guarantee how long it would last. In fact the jacket just lasted the six month trip. The salopettes finished in good condition as I wore them rarely, finding polycotton on my legs okay in the rain. In fact the main use for the salopettes was as laundrette wear while everything else was being washed!
The Pacific Crest Trail was an amazing adventure, a fantastic wilderness experience and I returned home feeling refreshed and renewed and determined to do more long walks. First though I needed some work. It came to me. I’d barely recovered from jetlag when the phone rang. “You’ll be needing some work”, said Paul Howcroft. I agreed. He then said, to my huge astonishment, that outdoor retailers were reluctant to take the polycotton clothing because it was so light and flimsy looking so he and Sarah were going to take it round the country and sell it direct. Would I like to come along and tell people how it performed? I would. And did, in a series of roadshows that stretched from Bristol to Aviemore. These proved Paul and Sarah correct in thinking that the garments would sell if the public could actually see them and paved the way for the next episode in the Rohan story – mail order and the first shop.
List with weights in ounces of the Rohan clothing I used on the Pacific Crest Trail:
Cool T 5
Long T 6
Shorts 5
Knickers 9
Bags 10
Action Jacket 12
Gore-tex jacket 21
Gore-tex salopettes 16
